What Defines a Good Brand?

There are many things analyzed when a new brand is launching in the market. Companies that fully understand how to establish and nurture their brand will undoubtedly maintain a strong and defensible position in the market. Hence, it follows that it is advantageous for a company to invest time and energy into making a ‘good’ brand. What a ‘good’ brand actually is, can be open to interpretation. This article is designed to shed some insight into what defines a good brand and how a company may work to establish its brand more effectively in the market.

It is well positioned

The best brands are well distinguished among the many other competitors in the market. Several companies will often compete for the same business and consumers easily get confused as to which brand will best serve their unique needs. For instance, many creative agencies have found positioning by focusing on a specific industry such as targeting real estate or law. Others focus on a specific functional area of expertise, such as Chipotle, which provides healthy and fast casual meals. Rarely will one see a luxury brand such as BMW expand into a product line of low cost cars as it dilutes its market positioning.

It is easily communicated

The best brands are easily communicated and may be well received by the target audience. It does not necessarily have to be communicated to everyone, but certainly the target market. A brand like McDonalds may not be well understood by the market the prefers high end luxury restaurants. Therefore, time and effort spent making it understood by the general market is largely inapplicable. This has to do with simplifying brand messages and generating targeted promotions across the world in a streamlined fashion that targets your primary customer demographic.

It is not dynamic

There are very few brands which have changed their positioning over the years and the ones that have, generally encountered many problems that resulted in confusion in the market. A dynamic brand means that the company’s market positioning is changing and any recognition that is previously spent building is diminished if not completely erased. A brand should be focused on a specific area of the market and remain focused on that area of the market as its scales and grows. It will be unable to be consistent if it does not effectively establish a consistent message.

It is distinguished

When you see a brand that you often use, you may notice how well you resonate with it. This is done through repeat images associated with building the brand across customer communication, marketing, promotions, product, and packaging. A distinguished brand will in effect, help your company to acquire stronger market positioning by building emotional bonds with your customer base that will last for the long term.
Building a good brand is not just about investing in a logo and market positioning. It must be regularly invested in and build over a long period of time in order to effectively grow and expand within the market. A company which focuses too much on other aspects may lose sight of the importance of branding and have a lower level of market positioning in the long-term.

Therefore, branding ought to always be on the list of objectives for any company, regardless of the state of its current role. While this list is by no means exhaustive, it will serve as a reminder for companies that wish to grow effectively and strategically in the market over a long period of time and increase their valuation by strengthening their brand identity to build customer loyalty and generate defensible market positioning.